Walmart buys online women’s fashion retailer ModCloth

Walmart has acquired the assets and operations of ModCloth, American online retailer of indie and vintage-inspired women’s clothing.

Headquartered in San Francisco, ModCloth offers unique designs and exclusive fashion, along with shoes, handbags and accessories, for 18-35-year-old women.

The company an office in Los Angeles and a joint office/fulfillment center in Pittsburgh. It also has a physical store in Texas at Austin where customers get to interact with the retailer’s ModStylists.

The retailer is said to have thousands of clothing and accessories, coming from independent designers, American brands and ModCloth-designed private label clothing.

Walmart stated: “The ModCloth team will bring their significant experience and unique talents to our US e-commerce efforts and will further strengthen the collective capabilities of the overall team.”

ModCloth will retain its site and store as an independent entity. It will be operated as a complementary brand to Walmart’s other e-commerce sites.

ModCloth CEO Matthew Kaness, the company’s executive team and the staff of over 300 employees will either continue where they are currently based across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh or join Walmart's American e-commerce retail business.

According to Walmart, designers selling on ModCloth now have the scope to reach more customers through Jet.com and other e-commerce sites.

ModCloth’s acquisition comes only a month after Walmart had purchased online outdoor retailer Moosejaw for nearly $51m. Like ModCloth, Moosejaw also continues to be run as an independent brand while consolidating the e-commerce business of the retailing giant.

Walmart has been looking to bolster its e-commerce sales starting from its September 2016 acquisition of Jet.com worth $3.3bn.